Helen's view of Section 59 and smacking

Helen Clark says Section 59 of the Crimes Act should go, although it would be wrong to have a law banning smacking.

She supports the repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act as she does not think parents should be able to use the defence of reasonable force in court.

But she supports Bradford's Bill which would remove the reasonable force defence and make parent's liable for using any force in smacking.

It would be quite wrong to have a law which banned smacking. That wouldn’t be tolerable because no one wants to see parents dragged before the courts for lightly touching a child

But that’s exactly what this bill has the potential to do. I really wonder if Miss Clark has read the bill at all. Fence-sitting of that nature would make anyone's bum crack sore.

UPDATE
I have spoken to all parties. The Green Party(and perhaps the Progressives) support this bill going through the legislative process to become an Act.

Labour's position on the Bradford bill is that they will support the bill going to the select committee only, however the party does not support the bill going any further at this stage. National and Act oppose the bill outright and will oppose it going to a select committee. United Future also oppose the bill. It is not known at this stage whether United will take the position National has taken. As always, NZ FIrst's MPs will treat it as a conscience issue

The Progressives position is that the bill will not ban smacking but will contribute to a culture change. The party is treating the bill the same as it did with legislation surrounding the drinking age. Media statements from both Labour and National will be posted as they come to hand.

UPDATE II National's statement and Labour's statements are online.Who would have thought that Labour could possibly have a similar position to the Maxim Institute on any issue!

Anyway, on the subject of unreasonable force, you would have noticed I haven't blogged about the Capill case. here's why I did mention earlier in the blog that sex charges are not usually an isolated event. I`ll wait until he pleads, then I may comment on his pornography use. Someone check his computer now.